The two fighters won the co-headlining bouts at M-1 Challenger 24, which took place this past Friday at the Ted Constant Convocation Center in Norfolk, Va.

“The Ultimate Fighter 8″ runner-up Vinny Magalhaes also secured a title shot with a victory on the night’s card.

Figueroa (10-4), a Florida-based fighter with American Top Team Orlando, upset former champ Artiom Damkovsky (8-5), who won the belt from Mairbek Taisumov in October. Figueroa scored multiple takedowns and ultimately set up the victory with ground and pound at the 2:28 mark of the second round.

Sultanakhmedov (16-5), meanwhile, picked up the vacant title (and his ninth win in 10 fights) with a second-round knockout of Team Quest fighter Tyson Jeffries (7-5). Sultanakhmedov used a variety of strikes, including vicious body blows, to set up the stoppage at the 3:07 mark of the second round. The Russian’s past seven wins now have come via knockout.

Magalhaes (7-5), meanwhile, scored a knockdown and rained down a barrage of punches from full mount to stop Jake Doerr (6-1). Since a career-worst 0-3 skid that resulted in his UFC release, Magalhaes has won five of six and now meets Viktor Nemkov (10-2) next month for M-1’s vacant light-heavyweight title.

Other weekend winners included:

Bellator middleweight champion and 185-pound notable Hector Lombard (28-2-1) ran his undefeated streak to 22 fights with a first-round TKO (due to a cut) of UFC vet Joe Doerksen (46-15). The championship victory, which came after a couple knockdowns and the fight-ending cut, took place Friday in the Australian-based Cage Fighting Championships organization, where Lombard is the middleweight champ. The Bellator titleholder next fights Falaniko Vitale in a non-title fight at Bellator 44.

In his first fight since a September UFC release, Tomasz Drwal (18-4-1) returned to his native Poland and scored a second-round TKO of Brazilian Leonardo Lucio Nascimento (8-8-2). The event took place at Friday’s Fighters Arena Lodz 2 show. In the co-headliner, M-1 vet and recent Bellator fighter Michal Kita (10-6) suffered a second-round TKO loss to Latvian heavyweight Konstantin Gluhov (15-6).

“The Ultimate Fighter 7″ finalist Jesse Taylor (18-6) moved to 4-0 since a May loss to Thales Leites with a unanimous-decision victory over Clay Davidson (5-3). The fight headlined Friday’s Battlefield Fight League 7 event in Canada. Taylor won his first seven fights after a 2008 release from the UFC but then was stuck in a 1-3 skid.